8 Ways to Lower Your Electric Bill by Using Less Electric

Did you know that, each year, the average home releases double the amount of carbon dioxide as the average automobile? With all of the emissions standards placed on cars, you’d think that there would be just as many eco-friendly regulations placed on homes. Since there aren’t, it’s up to the homeowner to take matters into their own hands. Using less electricity can not only lower your electric bill, it will also reduce your carbon footprint and help the environment.

Here are eight simple ways to reduce electricity use in your home.

1. Inspect Your Equipment - Check your heating and air conditioning systems to ensure that they are operating at 100% efficiency. A leaking duct, for example, could decrease a unit’s effectiveness by as much as 25%. If you’re not too handy around the house, you can have a certified technician inspect the equipment for around $75.


2. Cleanliness is Virtue - Cleaning and/or replacing air filters is one of the easiest ways to maximize energy efficiency in your home. Filters, by design, remove dirt, dust, pollen, and bacteria from the air. Too much dirt in a filter will seriously block air flow, though, so it’s important to keep a clean filter in your central air or window/wall unit.


3. Only Use What You Need - If you’re at work for eight hours a day and no one is at home, do you really need to have your A/C running? No. You can program most thermostats to turn on or off on a timer. That way, it is cool when you leave for work, cool when you return home, and pretty darn cool when you save about $200 a year on your electric bill.


4. Use Energy Star - Energy Star products and appliances, including air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines, and dishwashers, use 10-50% less energy and water than traditional home appliances. And what’s more, the government offers a generous tax credit for energy-efficient home additions or improvements. Using energy-efficient appliances can reduce your monthly electric bill up to 5%.


5. Bigger Isn’t Always Better - If you need a new wall or window air conditioning unit, don’t get the biggest, most powerful one on the block. Instead, use Energy Star guidelines to determine how powerful your unit should be, based on the room’s square footage. Units that are too powerful for a given room waste energy and often have difficulty reducing humidity.


6. Use CFL Light Bulbs - If you have yet to switch your incandescent light bulbs to compact fluorescent bulbs, this is a bandwagon you’ll want to jump on. CFLs use 75% less energy than regular bulbs, saving the average homeowner around $25 a year. Oh, and they also last ten times longer than regular bulbs. Small savings really do add up.


7. Seal Those Cracks - A properly insulated home can save you hundreds of dollars each year on your electric bill. After all, you don’t want the nice, cool (or cozy, warm) air that you’re paying for to simply leak out through cracks along window and door frames, do you? Insulation materials are even eligible for an energy-efficient government tax credit.


8. If You’re Not Using It, Unplug It - Though it may seem like a pain, unplugging unused appliances, chargers, or other equipment is a great way to reduce the amount of electricity you use in your home. The average household spends over $2,000 on energy bills every year, and 5-10% of that electricity is standby power for unused appliances attached to a power source. Save energy and money by unplugging unused appliances today.

Make sure to view all of our energy saving tips to make sure you are doing everything you can!